Before you start writing a screenplay, ask yourself one question. What is the big, compelling idea of your story? If you can’t think of the big, compelling idea that makes your story different and appealing, you probably don’t have a cinematic story worth writing about.
Look at how fast the Young Adult (YA) movie craze came and went. In “The Hunger Games”, the big idea is that teenagers are forced to fight to the death in an arena in a reality TV show. That idea alone is different, which makes us want to know more.
Even better, the whole idea of teenagers fighting to the death on a reality TV show drives the entire story from start to finish. So not only is the idea of teenagers fighting to the death an interesting idea, it’s also the foundation for the whole story.
Now look at all the YA movie flops that tried to follow “The Hunger Games”. What’s the big, compelling idea in “Divergent”? A bunch of teenagers live in a dystopian world where they’re divided into one of five factions. Has this idea got you yawning yet?
Look at “Mortal Engines” where the big compelling idea is that cities roll around the landscape on wheels to hunt down and capture other cities for their resources. That’s actually a cool idea and you can watch this opening scene below.
However, the idea of rolling cities devouring other cities plays no part in the rest of the story. Strip away this rolling city idea and the rest of the story would work just fine. Strip away the idea of teenagers fighting to the death on a reality TV show and “The Hunger Games” would fall completely apart.
Look at “The 5th Wave”, which is about an alien invasion of Earth. That’s an interesting idea but too vague. The 5th wave actually refers to the fifth tactic the aliens use to wipe out the Earth. Earlier waves involved diseases and floods, but the fifth wave involves aliens tricking humans to hunt and kill each other. A little more interesting, but not specific enough.
We can easily visualize a group of teenagers trapped in an arena, killing each other on a reality TV show. We can’t easily visualize how aliens are tricking humans to hunt and kill each other. We need more details to make this story come to life.
There’s a reason why so many YA novels failed to duplicate the success of “The Hunger Games”. First, they lacked a compelling idea. Second, they failed to tell a complete story.
In “The Hunger Games”, we get a complete story where Katniss volunteers for the Hunger Games to save her little sister, survives, and comes home again. In other YA movies, the ending is not complete.
In “The Maze Runner”, the compelling idea is that a bunch of teenage boys are trapped in a maze and want to figure out how they got there and how to get out. Then both the book and movie end without telling us why these boys were in the maze. By failing to tell a complete story, “The Maze Runner” tells a promising story that ultimately fizzles out in the end by failing to answer the question posed by its compelling idea.
It’s a mystery why these boys are trapped in a maze. By the end of the story, it’s still a mystery why these boys were trapped in a maze. By failing to answer the most compelling question that the story raises, the story creates a disappointing ending.
When creating your story, ask yourself what’s the big compelling idea that will grab people’s attention? Until you can define this compelling idea, you won’t have a story worth writing about.
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